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BY CURTIS EHRGOTT

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

'But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord' is perhaps one of the handful of scriptural phrases that makes it into the popular mindset. It can be found cross-stitched, on coffee mugs and on refrigerator magnets. It implies that the people in the house are people of faith, people of integrity and of good character.

However, 'For me and my household' is just one step up from personal faith. In our post-modern individualistic culture we have made some progress from the earlier 'me culture' of the 1970s and moved to the 'me and mine culture' of the present era.

Family is central for many people who call themselves Christians. One of the more popular sources of Christian wisdom comes from James Dobson and his Focus on the Family.

But Joshua was not making his penultimate words for just his family; he intended for all the people of all the tribes of Israel to take the same pledge. A covenant was made and the people said, 'The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.'

It is the corporate 'we' which is so essential to our faith in God. Many of us have privatized our faith, hiding our faith in our culture which preaches tolerance for every sort of behavior other than public exclamations of faith.

Some of us even hesitate to share our faith with our own children, declaring 'choice' to be the God they choose to follow. But faith is too important to be learned on the street. Faith is formed by the family, by the congregation and by the Christian community at large.

My first Bible study was not in my home church. Christian education there took too much time, and I was intimidated by the church people who already knew so much. While my family and I regularly attended church, other participation was limited.

One day at work I overheard two people talking about a sermon that was based on the same Scripture my pastor used the prior Sunday. After a few more conversations, a small group formed on Wednesdays at noon to discuss the sermons we heard and to do some Bible study.

We gathered over the Word as an odd group of people who attended Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, African Methodist Episcopal and Roman Catholic churches. I found out later about the three-year scriptural cycle called the Revised Common Lectionary that our pastors all seemed to follow. I realized then that we are all members of the Church universal and all called to be brothers and sisters to one another despite our differences.

I believe there are too many people who stay at home with a lonely, drifting faith. We are called to invite and offer Christ to those suffering souls. I believe there are too many small 'family chapel' congregations that are barely keeping their doors open and who don?t work well with the other churches on multi-point charges.

We are called to cooperate and collaborate and not to be in competition. Let us be led by God in the strength of our connections rather than dwell in our weaknesses. And let the people say, 'We will serve the Lord our God, and him we will obey.'

The Rev. Curtis Ehrgott is pastor of Wesley UMC in Hampstead.